Black and White

What is racism? It means discrimination, antagonism, or prejudice directed against someone of a different race. Based on the belief that one’s own race is superior, the term is a noun describing the condition of being a racist i.e., believing that the human population can be classified according to race.

Way back to antiquity, it is said that the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, stated in his discussion of slavery that while Greeks are free by nature, the ‘Barbarians’, who are non-Greeks, are slaves by nature and that it is in their nature to be more willing to submit to a despotic kind of government. From the Middle Ages and Renaissance period up to the 20th century, racism is still a big problem among all human beings.

The infamous Black and White racism in the United States has been present since the colonial era. Privileges and rights sanctioned socially or legally were given to White Americans but denied to Native Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic and Latino Americans. Also, European Americans savor the exclusive privileges in matters of education, voting rights, land acquisition, immigration, citizenship, and criminal procedure over periods of time extending from the 17th century to the 1960s. However, Irish people, Poles, and Italians who are considered non-Protestant immigrants from Europe suffered xenophobic exclusion and other forms of ethnicity-based discrimination in American society, and until the 1960s were not considered white.

Though not as vast or lucrative compared to those of the American people, the African American people have privileges, too. There are more athletic African American people getting hired for athletic scholarships. They have the advantage in terms of physical attributes when it comes to this field. Also, Black identity and pride is considered a form of empowerment while White identity and pride is considered a form of racism. Blacks can use racism to explain various individual or group failures while Whites cannot. Before elections, it is considered politically correct to appeal specifically to Black voters but not to White voters. There are also a wide variety of organizations catering specifically to Blacks and promoting their interests without being considered controversial. They have much lower risk of being accused of racism than Whites even if the circumstances are similar. Most of all, there is no “White guilt” and a movement promoting this.

On the other hand, White privilege is supposed to include not only socioeconomic benefits but also examples such as ‘they can talk with their mouth full and not have people put this down to their color’ and ‘They can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on their race’. In terms of ‘Diversity industry’, White privilege has become an important part of this industry which sells, for example, tickets to expensive White privilege conferences, lectures about White privilege, White privilege books, and White privilege consultancy for organizations.

In this modern era, it is unfortunate to imagine that racism still exists. And the best way to avoid this problem is to simply be with them regardless of his or her race, skin color, or ethnicity. After all, we are still brothers and sisters in the eyes of God.